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Patch Note:2.14.21.00
Patch Notes for version 2.14.21 'COMBAT' The "In Combat" effect is now applied only after a certain damage threshold has been met with a single volley from an attacker. This threshold is based upon the size of the target ship. The "idle" repair rate for all ships has been slowed down significantly. All ships will take around two hours to be fully repaired at the idle repair rate. To account for the new accuracy curve for cannons the following skills have had their effective ranges modified: Cutthroat Cut Shroud - 300 yards Entangling Shot - 300 yards Damage Rudder - 250 yards Cripple Enemy - 300 yards Deter Pursuit - 300 yards (and reduced duration to 30 seconds) Decimate - 500 yards Naval Officer Break Morale - 500 yards Disable Rigging - 300 yards Disable Rudder - 250 yards Crippling Broadside - 500 yards Decimate - 500 yards Thundering Broadside - 700 yards Privateer Crushing Broadside - 500 yards Demoralize - 500 yards Cut Shroud - 350 yards Entangling Shot - 350 yards Damage Rudder - 275 yards Cripple Enemy - 500 yards Freetrader Deter Pursuit - 300 yards 'CANNONS' The existing categories of cannon items for producing ships have been replaced by cannons with specific weights. On the Junk Dealer in your local port you will find an exchange shop for deconstructing your old cannon inventory into its constituent parts. All cannon (except swivel guns) will have a maximum range of 750 yards. While this is not historically accurate (all cannon featured in game have historic maximum ranges exceeding 1500 yards) we feel this range is right for game purposes when factors like map sizes and sight lines/distance are considered. Moving maximum cannon ranges to 750 yards also makes the tag angle from the Open Sea of greater importance as the starting distance of most battles is roughly at 750 yards. You now have less time to reorient a ship from a bad angle before coming under fire. Most cannon have had their reload times reduced by a few seconds. This change is simply to pick up the pace of the game that predominantly affects newer players. Simply put, when you have few skills to use and few guns to fire it doesn’t help the game from an interest standpoint to spend too much time waiting for guns to reload. We want to speed that aspect of combat up a bit and consequently scaled all the reload times of all cannon downward accordingly to maintain our general cannon reload structure. Many cannon have had their base damage increased. This was a byproduct of broadening the overall damage range represented by all cannon as a whole to accommodate a greater number of cannon. The scaling of the existing cannon into the expanded structure moved some base damage points. No cannon had its base damage reduced. Our decision here was to allow combat to become a bit more deadly in early testing and make adjustments if necessary from test data and feedback. Prize cannon are no longer range penalized and operate on their own base cannon accuracy curve. Previously prize cannon had been penalized in range due to their performance on the original cannon accuracy curve. Now that they have their own unique curve they are allowed to perform as the top performing cannon in class that their expense and lack of insurance value merit. Accuracy Changes A significant change implemented with the new cannon model is the base accuracy curve changing from a model with a relatively steady drop off in accuracy as range increases to one that holds accuracy longer then drops off faster followed by a gradual decrease off to a longer range. The goal of this model change is to have cannon perform relatively the same at close range in regards to accuracy, show their greatest differences in the mid-ranges and then again perform relatively the same at long ranges. A central concept of the new cannon model is that cannon of the same type have similar general performance characteristics in terms of accuracy. For our game purposes we’ve defined those types as Standard, Short, Long, Prize and Swivel to represent the types of cannon in game and the types we plan to introduce in the future. The Standard cannon type represents cannon that for their specific poundage would have been most common. Standard cannon are the cannon that are already in game and represent the cannon players can construct being implemented in build 2.14. All Standard cannon operate off the same basic standard accuracy curve. Swivel guns operate off their own accuracy curve being more akin to small arms fire in accuracy characteristics. Prize cannon are also classified as their own type as they are intended to represent the best cannon of the time. The two other cannon types (Short and Long) are not being implemented in build 2.14 as some of the associated content necessary for their introduction is not quite ready for implementation. The two primary cannon type curves that will have an impact on ship combat in build 2.14 are the Standard and Prize cannon curves. As examples of the basic to hit percentages of a 9lb cannon using the standard and prize cannon curves in the new cannon model are shown below. Along with new model data shown under Test Server the original model curve currently being used on the Live servers is displayed beside for comparison purposes. 'AI' NPC enemies will now attempt to fight at a closer distance, to match the new cannon accuracy curve. 'SEASONAL / SALES' Our seasonal content for Mardi Gras has been turned on. Ship bundles of all sizes are now 10% off in the Treasure Aisle store. New items are available in the Seasonal Piece of Eight exchange. Check out this post for more details. 'BUG FIXES' The hour-long bonus books for experience, loot, doubloons, and faction points all lacked description text for their effect details. Fixed. 'KNOWN ISSUES' Cannon accuracy information displayed in help documentation and ship deeds does not always match the actual accuracy of those cannon batteries. This will be corrected in an upcoming hotfix patch. Category:Patch Notes